1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device and a control method for a manipulator capable of handling a plate material which is subjected to a bending process in a bending machine such as a press break or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a manipulator has been developed for automatically handling the workpiece in a plate bending machine such as a press break, where a plate bending operation is performed, in order to automate this process.
A conventional manipulator usually comprises an industrial robot. A conventional manipulator is generally set up in a prescribed position in front of the bending process machine. In this type of manipulator the arm is installed on a supporting column in a manner to allow both free vertical and rotary movement, and also to provide free telescopic motion, and rotation. A plate clamping device is provided on the end of the arm for freely grasping a workpiece.
In a conventional manipulator with the abovementioned configuration, for the plate clamping device to have a wide range of movement, the arm must be long and the overall configuration results in a large manipulator, which is a drawback. In addition, the positioning of a plate in the plate bending device of the plate bending process machine is performed entirely by the manipulator. It is therefore necessary to construct a high-precision manipulator to improve the precision of the positioning of the plate. This leads to the problem of excessively high production costs.
The inventor of the present invention, with due consideration to these problem, has disclosed, in Japanese Patent No. Sho-62-313760, an improved manipulator for handling plate material in a plate bending machine such as the press break. This manipulator grasps the plate material and causes the clamped plate to turn over and rotate around an axis perpendicular to the plate surface Accordingly, in the case where the plate is bent in more than one place, successive scheduled bending points can be provided to the plate bending machine, depending on the bending stage. However, it is necessary to know the position of the plate in each bending stage for easy and rapid provision to the plate bending machine of a prescribed bending place of the plate.
Accordingly, there is the inconvenience that the one at a time input of the data on the position of the plate is troublesome.